Shane Blackshear on accessible theology, the Christian political voice, and racial reconciliation

“…part of the problem might be that many Christians don’t want reconciliation & redemption in the world as much as they want lower taxes or free education…”

This project we call The Badlands is hardly an ambitious one — just three Christians working out the relationship between faith, culture, and life through an extended written conversation. But we quickly realized that The Badlands needed to invite other voices into this conversation if it wanted to remain relevant and fruitful. None of us is qualified, on our own, to speak to the issues at hand. Yet somehow we are lucky enough to be joined quite early in the process by someone much more qualified than us.

Shane Blackshear, host of the podcast Seminary Dropout, graciously shared some of his thoughts on the issues that seemed most pressing and relevant to his work. Shane is a man who regularly interviews theological giants and Christian cultural icons like Walter Brueggemann, NT Wright, Rachel Held Evans, and Donald Miller. His work at Seminary Dropout largely inspired our own writing, so we couldn’t resist picking his brain a little.

First, Blackshear explained the fundamental reason for what he does and why he does it. The answer is encouraging for anyone who is perplexed by the current gap between theological theory and Christian practice at the grassroots level:

The purpose of Seminary Dropout is to be a bridge between the Christian academic world (as found in the seminary), and the average Christian who has little to no formal theological education. That’s why the official tagline for the show is “because good theology should be for everyone.” So its goal is to expose people to a much more robust and fuller Christianity than they might get from a TV or radio preacher or from the latest best seller at a Christian bookstore.

Blackshear’s approach to an everyman’s theology is not limited to the podcast. He shares sometimes harrowing insights on his blog, at his speaking events, and even through Twitter. Reid, Jake, and I were particularly curious about one tweet that got a lot of feedback — and push-back — from the public.

Here’s Blackshear’s answer to the feedback he received:

That one seemed to resonate with people, which is not to say that everyone liked it! First, I think there’s a difference between proclamation, which the Bible undoubtedly contains, and “advice.” Also, I didn’t mean this in a legalistic, rigid sense. I think most times people who solicit advice do so implicitly not explicitly. To put it simply, the tweet was about earning the right to speak into people’s life and not just taking that liberty without permission.

Blackshear goes on to emphasize that the Christianity described in scripture was never about forcefully compelling faith or a certain way of life — it was more like an invitation.

For the last few decades Christians have been trying to enforce a certain set of values through the law. In a sense Christians have been saying, “Here’s how you should live your life, and we’re voting to make you live that way” … What this says is that we don’t really care if people experience the love of Jesus in their lives, as long as their behavior is modified to look like they have the love of Jesus in their lives. That enforced behavior modification is the kind of unsolicited advice — on a societal level — that I’m talking about.

Now, there’s a more direct example of Christians literally giving the people they live and work around advice that wasn’t asked for and hasn’t been earned. It’s so cliche but “people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” Before we tell the people around us where they’ve erred, why not listen to their story? We have to grieve with them when they’re hurting and celebrate with them in their victories. Why not love first and trust that the love of God will cause the heart change that will take care of the superficial problems that we see boiling to the surface?

I am very concerned about the Bible being taken seriously so I appreciate the concern that some people voiced about that tweet, but I think that in the context that I just gave it, there’s no contradiction with scripture.

The issue of unsolicited advice and legislated morality emerges as particularly relevant in today’s political climate. The comments above hint at it, but Blackshear was a little more specific in his Facebook post on the same topic:

Proclamation, an undeniably biblical concept, is not the same as unsolicited advice. Jesus is never coercive, only invitational, and here’s the rub, he always earned the right to speak into people’s lives. Today much of the Christian community is giving the world a bunch of unsolicited advice about their lifestyle and choices. The world in turn is saying “You hate me. You hate those I love. You’ve never listened. You’ve never been there for me in a dark hour. Why, now, would I take your advice?”

Herein lies the folly of politics. Instead of sitting down with someone different, listening, sharing life, putting their needs before ours, and allowing the love of Christ to affect change in their lives, we’d rather vote or call our elected officials and coercively force behaviour modification on our neighbor.

In the midst of an increasingly bombastic election year, the Christian voice seems doomed to one of two fates: either dissipation or appropriation. So we asked Blackshear — as a prominent voice among contemporary Christians — to speak more directly about the relationship between Christians and political policy.

I am really troubled by the actions and words of Christians around election time. Christians argue on Facebook and in person and say horrible things to people who disagree with them. It causes us to dehumanize people who don’t share our views, and I think that dehumanizing people who God dearly loves and shed his blood on the cross for should be a red flag warning us that we are treading on dangerous waters.

The blending of political parties and patriotism in general with the gospel is also alarming. To hear some people talk about it you would think that God would just have his hands tied if there were no government of the United States of America. God does not need the government and the government is not God’s chosen way to bring the ministry of reconciliation and redemption to the world — part of the problem might be that many Christians don’t want reconciliation & redemption in the world as much as they want lower taxes or free education — the church is.

If we truly believed that then I think we would spend much less time, effort, and money getting a specific party or person elected, as much as we would making sure the church reflects God’s mission. As it is I believe that the amount of mental energy the average Christian spends on worrying about politics is downright idolatrous.

Racial Reconciliation

Not long ago, Blackshear interviewed Drew G.I. Hart concerning race relations within the church. Here, as in other areas, he emphasized the importance of the ministry of reconciliation and redemption.

Racial reconciliation is something that I feel like I’ve had my eyes opened to in the last few years. Simply put, the church’s role is to reflect the kingdom, but sadly most don’t. Martin Luther King said that 11 AM on Sunday morning was “the most segregated hour in this nation.” That should grieve Christians mightily and cause them to lament and repent.

I think first, we have to see diversity in our church not as a nice thing, or an added bonus, but absolutely necessary for being the kingdom of God. It’s not okay for white Christians to say “the door’s open” to people of color and leave it at that. I think I would have had a problem with that idea a few years back so I don’t expect everyone to be on board immediately, but I would encourage people not to dismiss it as liberal BS, but educate themselves on the effects of racism and history of it in America.

Blackshear laments the current state of race in the church, but he also offers some constructive advice for white Christians looking to engage with the process of reconciliation:

There’s a lot to unpack here. A lot. So where can someone start? Here are some important steps:

1. Read.
Here are some books I recommend:
— Trouble I’ve Seen by Drew G.I. Hart [here’s the podcast and 2nd appearance]
— Disunity in Christ by Christena Cleveland [podcast]
— Let Justice Roll Down by John M. Perkins
— Red, Brown, Yellow, Black, White, Who’s More Precious in God’s Sight by Leroy Barber [podcast]
— The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander

2. Be aware of your surroundings.
Most white Christians don’t know more than a few black folks. Most read book almost exclusively by white authors and listen to sermons by all white pastors. Be proactive in what you consume and purposefully expose yourself to things created by people of color.

Recommended Content

Beyond the recommendations for engaging in racial reconciliation, Blackshear gave us five of his overall favorite books/content sources for Christians (though he admits this changes from month to month):

1. The Naked Anabaptist by Stuart Murray
2. Trouble I’ve Seen by Drew Hart
3. Surprised by Hope by NT Wright
4. The sermon podcast from Woodland Hills Church
5. Scot McKnight’s blog

Finally — because of our interest in narrative — we asked Blackshear to give us a non-Biblical story, whether novel, history, movie, TV show or painting, that he thinks best “summarizes the gospel.” To our great luck, he gave us three, but with a caveat:

There are very few that really summarize the gospel as opposed to just reflecting elements of it, and obviously anything but the gospel will be lacking in some respect, but I’ll try.

1. Although it wanders in parts, the TV show “Lost” was really meaningful to me and expresses a good example of redemption and salvation.

Wendell Berry

2. “The Mad Farmer Liberation Front,” a poem by Wendell Berry has, to me, summed up a lot of what it means to be a Christian in the world today. I don’t even know if I take the poem to mean what Berry meant it to, but that’s poetry for you.
3. WM Young’s “The Shack,” although controversial to some, I felt was actually very good at articulating the gospel and God’s love for us, in a very moving way I might add.

Gratitude and References

A big thanks to Shane Blackshear for responding to our questions. We had nothing to offer him — no extra traffic for his podcast, certainly no clout for interviewing with three inexperienced writers trying out a new venue. Yet he agreed anyway.

What a valuable thing it is simply to love conversations of faith and to meditate on what it means to be a Christian in the midst of an increasingly cacophonous world.

In case you missed any links, we want to make sure you have access to everything Shane has to offer:

• Shane’s podcast, Seminary Dropout
• Shane’s Twitter
• Shane’s Facebook

If you’d like to join our conversation, either by discussion or contributing a post, we’d love to add more voices to this publication. And you certainly don’t have to be a big name to take part in meaningful writing — at least, that’s the premise of our project. Just shoot us an email at thebadlandsblog@gmail.com